The
Lex Thuringorum ("Law of the Thuringians")[1] is a law code that
survives today in one 10th-century manuscript, the Codex Corbeiensis,
alongside a copy of the Lex Saxonum, the law of the Saxons. The code
was compiled in the first decade of the 9th century, probably 802–3,
under Frankish patronage. The language of the law code is Latin and
few Thuringians could have read it, nonetheless some must have
cooperated with Frankish officials during the process of collecting
and codifying the customs.[2] The Lex Thuringorum, the Lex Saxonum,
the Lex Francorum Chamavorum and the
Lex Frisionum comprise the four
so-called "Carolingian tribal laws" (karolingischen Stammesrechte),
because they were produced at the same time at the direction of King
Charles I in order to accommodate the differing legal customs of the
nations living within his empire. They were neither totally faithful
nor comprehensive reproductions of tribal law, but were created as
part of a process of official christianisation.[2] The historian
Timothy Reuter writes that "the manuscript transmission does not
suggest that [the Thuringian law] was extensively used, though there
are enough different strata of law still visible in the text to
suggest that it was not merely a literary exercise."[3]
Per chapter 31 of the Lex Thuringorum, feuds were heritable: "To
whomever an inheritance of land should descend, he also should receive
the battlegear—that is to say, the breastplate—and the
[obligations] of vengeance for kin and the payment of wergild."[4]
Karl MüllenhoffKarl Müllenhoff cited this passage to show that heritable feuds were
of German origin, but more recent scholarship has rejected the view
that the early medieval Germanic law codes represent pure Germanic
law; rather they fuse Germanic and Roman customs.[5]
In the Thuringian law, the severity of punishment for the crime of
raptus (abduction) is equivalent to that for murder, an indication
that the former was understood to include rape or sexual violence.[6]
Per chapter 47, a woman was permitted to have money, but not to spend
it as she saw fit, nor was she to marry without permission.[6]

Contents

1 Notes
2 Editions
3 Sources
4 External links

Notes[edit]

^ The full name of the code is Lex Angliorum et Werinorum hoc est
Thuringorum, "Law of the
AnglesAngles and Warini, that is, of the
Thuringians". It is unclear what the
AnglesAngles and
WariniWarini have to do with
the Thuringians, but it might be a reference to all Germans living
east of the
SaaleSaale and
ElbeElbe rivers.
^ a b Elsakkers 1999, pp. 41–42.
^ Reuter 1991, p. 69.
^ Ad quemncumque hereditas terrae pervenerit, ad illum vestis bellica,
id est lorica, et ultio proximi et solutio leudis debet pertinere.
^ Jurasinski 2006, p. 93.
^ a b Elsakkers 1999, pp. 48–49.